Why Big Sky’s small telemark community seems to grow every year
By Mario Carr EBS CONTRIBUTOR
Telemark skiers are a niche sect of the snowsports community. Depending on who you ask, they are either held in high esteem and respected as free-spirited pioneers of the path less traveled, or they are rife with stigma and considered the ugly ducklings of the mountain. The catalogue of telemark skiers in Big Sky contains people from a wide variety of backgrounds and occupations. Every telemark skier is different, though there are many stereotypes about them.
Ennis residents Christian “Chow” Howerton, John “Terry” Watson, Bryce Denton and “Action” Jackson Woods are all telemark skiers that frequently carpool up Jack Creek Road to tele at Big Sky Resort where Terry works as a tram operator, and Chow is a part-time lifty. The four ski around in a pack, shouting their own lingo and cheering on every other telemark skier they see. Aside from Terry, everyone is only on their second season of telemark skiing, yet they are tackling double- and triple-black diamond terrain with confidence. Chow, Denton and Action Jackson all picked up telemark after being on snow for only one or two seasons; Terry picked it up first after a few years snowboarding and alpine skiing. On Jan. 27, these four took a few laps with EBS.
“We leave the mountain after a day of tele-skiin’, and it’s all we talk about… I was, like, addicted to running before I started skiing and now I don’t run at all and this is all I wanna do. It’s like you’re just running down the mountain,” Chow said on a chairlift ride.
Many alpine skiers look at telemark skiers and tell themselves that they’d never be able to do it. The lunging turns and dynamic movement can be an intimidating concept for those that are used to having their heels locked down, but most tele-skiers believe that the tele-turn is a more natural position. And while tele-skiers settle into their turns and often never look back, there’s no denying the initial challenge of learning the new dance with the mountain. Chow quoted “The Telemark Movie (1987),” about the art of the turn: “The telemark position is a position of strength and safety.”
Action Jackson was one of the last members of the group to take up telemark, and of course he had a hard time keeping up at first.
“There was a little bit of roasting, a little bit of encouragement, and a lot of beer,” he said with regards to how his friends helped catch him up to speed.
“It can humble you in a hurry,” Terry said. He suffered a broken big toe while tele-skiing after taking a hard fall on the Yeti Traverse last spring, but that didn’t affect his love for the sport.
“I do not own any other equipment… No, I never will alpine ski ever again if I can help it,” he said.
There are infinite reasons why people pick up telemark skiing, but a common theme seems to be that it is both fun and practical. Big Sky Resort ski patroller Charles McVaney is on his ninth year patrolling in Big Sky, and started telemark skiing at work at the start of last season.
“Before that I just did it on my off days when I was skiing around with the wife,” McVaney said while free skiing with EBS on Challenger.
McVaney estimates that roughly 15% of the full-time ski patrollers in Big Sky are telemark skiers and says there is a strong tele-culture on the job. McVaney feels most comfortable out on route in his telemark gear.
“For ski patrolling we do so many weird things and this is such a dangerous mountain with variable conditions. Sometimes I hear other patrollers say they did something… and I think to myself ‘I would never wanna do that in an alpine ski again,’” he said.
Whether it’s hidden rocks, sastrugi snow, large wind drifts or punchy snow, McVaney described having a free heel in dangerous conditions as a luxury.
“A knee injury would be kinda catastrophic to my well-being, and in my opinion [telemark skiing] is a really good way to avoid that while still having a lot of fun.”
Some telemark skiers believe in dropping the knee every turn no matter what, otherwise it doesn’t count. Others are just happy to have the option. McVaney explained that having the ability to make both styles of turns is one of his favorite parts about the sport.
“Tele-skiing and dropping the knee is definitely harder than just alpine skiing, but that being said, [with] modern day equipment you don’t necessarily have to drop the knee. For me, my tele-skiing is very conditionally dependent,” he said.
While telemark continues to evolve, the community is filled with people riding used boots, skis and bindings, who often stockpile their preferred gear.
“Everything I’ve ever bought has been used, except maybe one pair of bindings,” Chow said.
Perhaps the most inviting thing about telemark skiing is the fact that it can be done both inbounds at the resort, and in the backcountry. Skiers simply apply skins to their skis, flip a switch on their bindings and walk uphill.
“I can ski the resort with this, I can go out in the backcountry, and I don’t have to have four pairs of bindings and five sets of skis,” Denton said.
The four often go out into the backcountry together, and Terry explained that the fact that everyone is telemarking helps them to all enjoy pursuing similar lines. “I believe we all have a very similar risk tolerance, and that helps us get to where we need to be,” he said.
All four skiers are fond of getting as low as possible on their telemark skis, which makes the snow feel that much deeper, and allows for endless face shots.
“We always say, I’m trying to be, like, average 4-foot-6 today, all day long and just stay low,” Chow said.
While skiing with EBS, the telemark crew had beards and mustaches full of icy snow, and they had been skiing groomers on a day without any new snow. As they descended the Ambush headwall, they blew up cloud after cloud of snow, surrounded by skiers and snowboarders arcing their turns.
A cult following
The act of converting your skiing and snowboarding friends to telemark skiing has been called tele-evangelism. Being a telemark skier myself, I have influenced nearly a dozen people to give the sport a try. The community is generous—everyone mentioned in this article has had the opportunity to borrow a pair of boots or skis when learning. But from there, Terry explained that it’s up to every individual to teach themselves how to telemark.
“No one can teach you how to telemark ski… I’m just gonna give you little hints. I’ll tell you if that’s good or that’s bad… That is the beauty of it… As long as you’re not falling on your face the entire way down, we’re gonna call that good,” Terry said.
In the long term, these tele-skiers view telemark skiing as their ticket to a long and happy life of skiing. Many tele-skiers believe they were simply skiing too fast on their alpines. Terry embraced the sport while working in Winter Park, Colorado, after he saw a man that he assumed was over 65 years old “greasing” smooth tele-turns down black diamond terrain from the chairlift.
“I was like, ‘What is that? How do I do that? What is that called? How do I get ahold of those,’” he recalled.
All the tele-skiers mentioned in this article encourage anyone to give it a try, to not be afraid, and to talk to local tele-skiers about the sport.
“Do it for two weeks straight, and then you’ll never go back,” Terry said.
